Inhomogeneous composition of alloyed iron–platinum magnetic nanoparticles synthesized at low temperature

Abstract

Aqueous low temperature pathways are attractive for synthesizing colloidal iron–platinum nanoparticles, which are promising candidates for applications ranging from data storage to biomedicine. Identifying the inhomogeneous composition of the products as the major hurdle of such syntheses, we present and discuss data including synthesis time, iron precursors and reducing agent aiming at quantifying and understanding the effect of the ionic precursor and the reducing agent on the composition of alloyed nanomaterials. We demonstrate that the nanoparticle composition could be modulated by using faster reducing agents as well as iron(II) salts which are less susceptible to base hydrolysis than iron(III) salts. The strategy we highlight here should be applicable to other alloy nPs fabricated by low temperature co-reduction in aqueous solution.